Happy Holidays!

As a reference: Google Earth: Market is 33 15 13.00 N 44 22 59.20 E 24th St is the big road just below the "triangle" running east/west. Muhallah 822 is south of that (Muhallah is neighborhood).

We're in the middle of a Shia "Holiday". Most people know what holidays mean in these parts...

This particular "holiday" is the mourning of an imam (religious leader) that was killed around 1000 years ago. So...how does one mourn this death? Well...by crying...making a pilgrimage...and of course cutting each other, wrapping each other in chains and dragging each other around. Oh..and if you're a female, you just have to slap your face a little bit. Sounds reasonable, no?

This partcular imam is improtant to the Shia because he was supposed to help lead them to victory over the "insurgents" (insurgents in this instance are sunnis...I talked to one of my terps about this for a while...told him outright they were nuts). So the cutting and self deprecation is done because they feel guilty for not protecting this imam well enough, ie, they should suffer for that...best yet, they should die. Heckuva way to "celebrate".

So that brings me to our days lately. Had a very long one yesterday. Since the Shias are celebrating and they blame the Sunnis for the death of this imam and well...we patrol a Sunni area...you do the math.

Our day started out mostly quiet...of course, not too many folks are up at 0500. Around 0800 we started hearing lots of gunfire to our south and some to our west. Since nothing was coming at us, we figure it's good ole sectarian fighting. And out of our AO. Around 0900, casualties started coming north for help from the Americans. Our first candidate was a 20something female with a small shrapnel wound to the leg. Nothing bad, doc patched her up and we headed over to the next one that had come up.

The next two were young 20's males. One shot in the face. One shot in the lower back. I had our medic working on the one shot in the face and started getting my other guys checking some of the locals for gunpowder. The IA's showed up with their ambulance and started loading up the two wounded. The one with the lower back wound found out they were going to the local hospital and not the CSH and had his buddies grab him and carry him away.

One of the guys did check out for gunpowder, but by the time we turned around from checking it, he had taken off back into 822. Definite procedure change will be made because of that. Obviously these guys weren't just on the receiving end of random gunfire.

We got the gunshot wound to the face off to the hospital and started to move back to our position on the west end of 24th. 2 other trucks roving the market and one on the east end. As we got back in place, one of our two rovers started taking fire down from 822. No big deal, no real target to shoot at, could just be overflow from the stuff going on down south. So the continued on.

A few minutes later, one of those trucks took a round to the turret glass. Sniper. The had eyes on the building and returned fire. A good, heavy barrage from their M240. I get the sitrep and ask how far down the house is. 50m is the reply. Cool...let's go get em. I ask permission to enter 822 (since it's not our AO...) and away we go. We bound down the side of the street using backyards. Climbing walls in our gear isn't fun...taxing to say the least. We get to the approximate house and I call for verification. Nope. Not there yet. We look down the street. At least another 250m. Apparently the 50m "guess" was made by the gunner...while he looked through his scope. Frickin privates. We get on the sidewalk and bound back up the street to the market.

We mount back into our trucks and start getting back in position. Again, don't have a chance to get there before another casualty comes up. This time a 10yo boy. Shrapnel through the face. It went in one side, wrapped around the front of the jaw and exited the other side. Knocked out several teeth and he was bleeding pretty bad. With no IA assets left, we took him to the CSH. The patched him up there and he went into surgery to repair a facial break. We were told he would have died if we hadn't taken him...so I guess something good happened.

While we were at the CSH...the rest of my platoon showed up (we headed to the CSH right at shift change...so thankfully didn't have to leave any trucks by themselves for very long). They were engaged throughout the rest of the day. One "brave" insurgent decided to step out of an alley around 90-100m away from one of our trucks and open fire. My guys returned fire...didn't have a chance to find out if he was killed...but he was definitely hit. 7.62 into the body anywhere creates a lot of bleeding...and given their medical possibilities...pretty sure he was a goner at some point. The rest of the engagements were of the 500m variety. So lots of shooting and not much else. More of a posturing game of who can make more noise. It's seldom that anyone comes close to us...they generally know the results.

So that's the current "holiday" happening. Not sure what it's called...and I honestly don't care. It's the same as any other holiday here...an excuse to go out and shoot more. It's all they know.

Local platoon does good...story at 11 on msnbc

I'll start off with good news that was posted here. It's about the little girl that I mentioned in passing in a previous post. Our medic, Doc Allen, was responsible for stabilizing her. Just a couple notes on the story, though: 1. It wasn't luck that we were there. We're "there" 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. 2. She was shot, not hit by a mortar. If the link doesn't work, go to msnbc videos section and search for "Caught in the crossfire". Wendy, you can stop crying now.

I've tended to try to post more often, but it just hasn't happened that way. Generally not much to post, which is a good thing. Other times...well...just harder to find exactly what to say. The length between posts will stop being up to me soon. If you look at the news at all, you've seen the new plans for us here. So we'll be out in BFI before long. Not sure when. Not sure exactly where...

So the updates from my little section of Baghdad tend to be fairly upbeat. That continues I suppose. Mostly quiet...but again...quiet is relative. I had an epiphany of sorts the other night while we were doing the JSS shift. We were sitting on the balcony of the palace, having an MRE and we hear machinegun fire. To a man, we all look in the direction of it...but no one cares. Too far off. No zings, pops or cracks. So it's not at us and doesn't effect us other than being a cool background symphony.

Part of our job in the Market is helping the locals. Not a bad job. A selfless one, though. They ask for much and are generally helpless to help themselves. Not out of lack of ability. Mostly a lack of desire. But that's a deeper subject plane that doesn't need to be hit on here.

Being as days run into days lately, I can't remember exactly which one it was...but 25th of Feb I think. I got out of my truck on the western end of the Market, along with a couple other guys, to speak with some locals about a barrier that had been moved by another company (a common occurrence...they come through our AO, move a barrier and then don't put it back...thanks Charlie.). We're standing there trying to figure how or if we can move it (highway divider...ie, jersey barrier). We come up with a pendulum action using the chain on the humvee to swing it around in place. Great plan. Should work. As we walk over to the barrier, though, we hear "zip! zip!" Couple expletives later and my gunner's unleashed 50 rounds somewhere to the west. I'm ducking for cover behind a light pole. My SGT's on the south side of the truck hugged up next to it, nicely exposed and shooting west (right in front of me...blocking my line of sight...). Next to him is my driver, sitting out in the open on the south side of the truck. I start yelling for him to move, he's doing no good sitting out there. He gives me the "why?" look and it's all I can do not to shoot him myself. Seconds later rounds kick up next to him, coming from the south and he moves as my gunner adjusts his fire to the south and unleashes another long fusillade.

Apparently Pvt Jones shot enough, close enough to silence any takers out there. 2minutes was all it lasted. But it was one of the few times we actually had a target to shoot at. Or at least a couple had a target. Bad guys don't like to stay and play often. No different that time. No time to maneuver. No time to do much of anything. We were just trying to help move a barrier.

I guess it's good to be helpful here...that's why we're here. But sometimes their belief in the mystical surpasses their logical reasoning. If they have any. I swear they think we have magical pills and salves that will do anything. It's the only logical conclusion I can draw from them seeking help for a woman they brought us.

We were approached on the 27th by a group saying they had a casualty that had been hit by a mortar. Older woman. Missing an arm and leg. They had her at the local clinic, but the clinic couldn't help. Sure...we'll see what we can do, bring her to us (many reasons not to go to her...). So they do. And I have Doc Remaly take a look at her. In the meantime they bring a push cart full of others...3 others. Another older woman and two kids (about 3-4yo, one boy, one girl). Turns out the multiple amputee was DOA. Being as she wasn't bleeding when they got her to us, she was probably dead for a while. See belief in the mystical above...

Same with the little girl. She was done. Doc started with the other two. Reset and splinted both legs of the woman and then ran out of bandages patching holes in her and the little boy. It was rather amazing to me, the kid didn't cry. He probably had 15-20 holes in his body...but not a whimper while they worked on him. Just shut his eyes and squeezed his uncle's hand. I say his uncle...his dad wasn't there. I'll get to him shortly. But after some convincing, we finally got the IA ambulance to come over and loaded the two up to go to the hospital.

So the dad. He had gone with another victim (there were several others apparently that other forces had taken to the green zone) to the CSH. When the IA's were seperating everyone out at the hospital, they recognized him. Local insurgent. He tested positive for explosives and was arrested. Turns out dad was trying to ambush a local general and shot his own house. There's some dark humor in there somewhere...if you can see past the innocent child he killed.